It’s only mid-April, but on Friday evening, the Notre Dame cheerleading squad hosted a football pep rally in The Pit at the Joyce Center. Actually, there were several mini rallies as seven Notre Dame students tried out to be the shillelagh-holding, green-clad face of the Fighting Irish.

Hundreds of students (and even a few Notre Dame Coaches Clinic participants) came out to the basketball practice facility in support of their friends and classmates trying out to be the next Notre Dame leprechaun.

Events like this that remind you of the passionate spirit of the Notre Dame student body. Homemade t-shirts, thunderstix, but mostly good, old-fashioned cheering made for a great atmosphere, and had everyone thinking about football season (which by the way, is 137 days away).

The tryouts began with each of the seven leprechaun hopefuls leading the crowd through a mock pep rally for the Purdue game, the first home football contest on the 2012 schedule (Sept. 8, 3:30 pm ET, Notre Dame Stadium – mark your calendar).

Outgoing senior, or perhaps leprechaun emeritus Mike George emceed the event, putting the competitors on the spot and asking them to ‘introduce’ famous Notre Dame personalities as guest speakers – everyone from two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck (’05) to women’s basketball head coach Muffet McGraw.

George also presented each of the leprechauns with a scenario – the band has finished playing, the fans are waiting, the team has yet to arrive and the pep rally is broadcast nationally on NBC. How are you going to keep everyone entertained?

Afterwards, WNDU sports reporter Angelo Di Carlo “grilled” each student in a mock live interview, asking if the Irish can return to football dominance and why he or she should be selected as the 2012-13 leprechaun.

The Fighting Irish expect to light up the scoreboard this fall, so of course, the tryouts concluded with a push-up contest.

After the team of judges deliberated for a couple hours on Friday evening, junior Bryce Burton was selected as the new Gold Squad leprechaun for football and men’s basketball. Burton was the Blue Squad leprechaun this past year, cheering for soccer and women’s hoops.

Sophomore Johnny Romano will take Burton’s place on the Blue Squad and junior Louis Ganser will cheer for the new Green Squad.

All in all, a great evening at The Pit, and a nice promotion for the leprechaun who helped cheer Coach McGraw’s squad all the way to the national championship game in Denver.
Check out an interview with Burton on WNDU.

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